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Zero to One: Notes on Start Ups, or How to Build the Future

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Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future Kindle Edition

by Peter Thiel (Author), Blake Masters (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 36,686 ratings

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “This book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to create value in the world.”—Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta

“Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.”—Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla

The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.

Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself.

Doing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition altogether, because their businesses will be unique.

Zero to One presents at once an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about innovation: it starts by learning to ask the questions that lead you to find value in unexpected places.

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September 16, 2014
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Popular Highlights in this book

What are popular highlights?

The perfect target market for a startup is a small group of particular people concentrated together and served by few or no competitors.
Highlighted by 19,060 Kindle readers
All happy companies are different: each one earns a monopoly by solving a unique problem. All failed companies are the same: they failed to escape competition.
Highlighted by 17,050 Kindle readers
As a good rule of thumb, proprietary technology must be at least 10 times better than its closest substitute in some important dimension to lead to a real monopolistic advantage.
Highlighted by 16,289 Kindle readers
As you craft a plan to expand to adjacent markets, don’t disrupt: avoid competition as much as possible.
Highlighted by 15,942 Kindle readers
The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself.
Highlighted by 13,430 Kindle readers

From the Publisher

The Economist says, “Zero to One should be read not just by aspiring entrepreneurs.”

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Crisply written, rational and practical, Zero to One should be read not just by aspiring entrepreneurs but by anyone seeking a thoughtful alternative to the current pervasive gloom about the prospects for the world.”
– The Economist

"An extended polemic against stagnation, convention, and uninspired thinking. What Thiel is after is the revitalization of imagination and invention writ large…"
– The New Republic

"Might be the best business book I've read...Barely 200 pages long and well lit by clear prose and pithy aphorisms, Thiel has written a perfectly tweetable treatise and a relentlessly thought-provoking handbook."
– Derek Thompson, The Atlantic

“This book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to create value in the world.”
- Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook

“Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.”
- Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla

" Zero to One is the first book any working or aspiring entrepreneur must read—period."
- Marc Andreessen, co-creator of the world's first web browser, co-founder of Netscape, and venture capitalist at Andreessen Horowitz

"Zero to One is an important handbook to relentless improvement for big companies and beginning entrepreneurs alike. Read it, accept Peter’s challenge, and build a business beyond expectations."
- Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO, GE

“When a risk taker writes a book, read it. In the case of Peter Thiel, read it twice. Or, to be safe, three times. This is a classic.”
- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan

“Thiel has drawn upon his wide-ranging and idiosyncratic readings in philosophy, history, economics, anthropology, and culture to become perhaps America’s leading public intellectual today”
- Fortune

"Peter Thiel, in addition to being an accomplished entrepreneur and investor, is also one of the leading public intellectuals of our time. Read this book to get your first glimpse of how and why that is true."
- Tyler Cowen, New York Times best-selling author of Average is Over and Professor of Economics at George Mason University

"The first and last business book anyone needs to read; a one in a world of zeroes."
- Neal Stephenson, New York Times best-selling author of Snow Crash, the Baroque Cycle, and Cryptonomicon

"Forceful and pungent in its treatment of conventional orthodoxies—a solid starting point for readers thinking about building a business."
- Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Peter Thiel is a technology entrepreneur and investor best known for co-founding PayPal. Since then he has co-founded the data analytics firm Palantir Technologies, made the first outside investment in Facebook, provided early funding for companies like SpaceX and LinkedIn and established and funds the Thiel Foundation, which nurtures tomorrow’s tech visionaries.

Blake Masters is co-founder of Judicata, a technology startup that builds tools for legal research and analysis. Like Peter, Blake received undergraduate and law degrees from Stanford.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Preface

Every moment in business happens only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social net-work. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them.

Of course, it’s easier to copy a model than to make something new. Doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But every time we create something new, we go from 0 to 1. The act of creation is singular, as is the moment of creation, and the result is something fresh and strange.

Unless they invest in the difficult task of creating new things, American companies will fail in the future no matter how big their profits remain today. What happens when we’ve gained everything to be had from fine- tuning the old lines of business that we’ve inherited? Unlikely as it sounds, the answer threatens to be far worse than the crisis of 2008. Today’s “best practices” lead to dead ends; the best paths are new and untried.

In a world of gigantic administrative bureaucracies both public and private, searching for a new path might seem like hoping for a miracle. Actually, if American business is going to succeed, we are going to need hundreds, or even thousands, of miracles. This would be depressing but for one crucial fact: humans are distinguished from other species by our ability to work miracles. We call these miracles technology.

Technology is miraculous because it allows us to do more with less, ratcheting up our fundamental capabilities to a higher level. Other animals are instinctively driven to build things like dams or honeycombs, but we are the only ones that can invent new things and better ways of making them. Humans don’t decide what to build by making choices from some cosmic catalog of options given in advance; instead, by creating new technologies, we rewrite the plan of the world. These are the kind of elementary truths we teach to second graders, but they are easy to forget in a world where so much of what we do is repeat what has been done before.

Zero to One is about how to build companies that create new things. It draws on everything I’ve learned directly as a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir and then an investor in hundreds of startups, including Facebook and SpaceX. But while I have noticed many patterns, and I relate them here, this book offers no formula for success. The paradox of teaching entrepreneurship is that such a formula necessarily cannot exist; because every innovation is new and unique, no authority can prescribe in concrete terms how to be innovative. Indeed, the single most powerful pattern I have noticed is that successful people find value in unexpected places, and they do this by thinking about business from first principles instead of formulas.

This book stems from a course about startups that I taught at Stanford in 2012. College students can become extremely skilled at a few specialties, but many never learn what to do with those skills in the wider world. My primary goal in teaching the class was to help my students see beyond the tracks laid down by academic specialties to the broader future that is theirs to create. One of those students, Blake Masters, took detailed class notes, which circulated far beyond the campus, and in Zero to One I have worked with him to revise the notes for a wider audience. There’s no reason why the future should happen only at Stanford, or in college, or in Silicon Valley.

Chapter 1

The Challenge of the Future

Whenever I interview someone for a job, I like to ask this question: "What important truth do very few people agree with you on?"

This question sounds easy because it's straightforward. Actually, it's very hard to answer. It's intellectually difficult because the knowledge that everyone is taught in school is by definition agreed upon. And it's psychologically difficult because anyone trying to answer must say something she knows to be unpopular. Brilliant thinking is rare, but courage is in even shorter supply than genius.

Most commonly, I hear answers like the following:

"Our educational system is broken and urgently needs to be fixed."

"America is exceptional."

"There is no God."

Those are bad answers. The first and the second statements might be true, but many people already agree with them. The third statement simply takes one side in a familiar debate. A good answer takes the following form: "Most people believe in x, but the truth is the opposite of x." I'll give my own answer later in this chapter.

What does this contrarian question have to do with the future? In the most minimal sense, the future is simply the set of all moments yet to come. But what makes the future distinctive and important isn't that it hasn't happened yet, but rather that it will be a time when the world looks different from today. In this sense, if nothing about our society changes for the next 100 years, then the future is over 100 years away. If things change radically in the next decade, then the future is nearly at hand. No one can predict the future exactly, but we know two things: it's going to be different, and it must be rooted in today's world. Most answers to the contrarian question are different ways of seeing the present; good answers are as close as we can come to looking into the future.

Zero to One: The Future of Progress

When we think about the future, we hope for a future of progress. That progress can take one of two forms. Horizontal or extensive progress means copying things that work--going from 1 to n. Horizontal progress is easy to imagine because we already know what it looks like. Vertical or intensive progress means doing new things--going from 0 to 1. Vertical progress is harder to imagine because it requires doing something nobody else has ever done. If you take one typewriter and build 100, you have made horizontal progress. If you have a typewriter and build a word processor, you have made vertical progress.

At the macro level, the single word for horizontal progress is globalization--taking things that work somewhere and making them work everywhere. China is the paradigmatic example of globalization; its 20-year plan is to become like the United States is today. The Chinese have been straightforwardly copying everything that has worked in the developed world: 19th-century railroads, 20th-century air conditioning, and even entire cities. They might skip a few steps along the way--going straight to wireless without installing landlines, for instance--but they're copying all the same.

The single word for vertical, 0 to 1 progress is technology. The rapid progress of information technology in recent decades has made Silicon Valley the capital of "technology" in general. But there is no reason why technology should be limited to computers. Properly understood, any new and better way of doing things is technology.

Because globalization and technology are different modes of progress, it's possible to have both, either, or neither at the same time. For example, 1815 to 1914 was a period of both rapid technological development and rapid globalization. Between the First World War and Kissinger's trip to reopen relations with China in 1971, there was rapid technological development but not much globalization. Since 1971, we have seen rapid globalization along with limited technological development, mostly confined to IT.

This age of globalization has made it easy to imagine that the decades ahead will bring more convergence and more sameness. Even our everyday language suggests we believe in a kind of technological end of history: the division of the world into the so-called developed and developing nations implies that the "developed" world has already achieved the achievable, and that poorer nations just need to catch up.

But I don't think that's true. My own answer to the contrarian question is that most people think the future of the world will be defined by globalization, but the truth is that technology matters more. Without technological change, if China doubles its energy production over the next two decades, it will also double its air pollution. If every one of India's hundreds of millions of households were to live the way Americans already do--using only today's tools--the result would be environmentally catastrophic. Spreading old ways to create wealth around the world will result in devastation, not riches. In a world of scarce resources, globalization without new technology is unsustainable.

New technology has never been an automatic feature of history. Our ancestors lived in static, zero-sum societies where success meant seizing things from others. They created new sources of wealth only rarely, and in the long run they could never create enough to save the average person from an extremely hard life. Then, after 10,000 years of fitful advance from primitive agriculture to medieval windmills and 16th-century astrolabes, the modern world suddenly experienced relentless technological progress from the advent of the steam engine in the 1760s all the way up to about 1970. As a result, we have inherited a richer society than any previous generation would have been able to imagine.

Any generation excepting our parents' and grandparents', that is: in the late 1960s, they expected this progress to continue. They looked forward to a four-day workweek, energy too cheap to meter, and vacations on the moon. But it didn't happen. The smartphones that distract us from our surroundings also distract us from the fact that our surroundings are strangely old: only computers and communications have improved dramatically since midcentury. That doesn't mean our parents were wrong to imagine a better future--they were only wrong to expect it as something automatic. Today our challenge is to both imagine and create the new technologies that can make the 21st century more peaceful and prosperous than the 20th.

Startup Thinking

New technology tends to come from new ventures--startups. From the Founding Fathers in politics to the Royal Society in science to Fairchild Semiconductor's "traitorous eight" in business, small groups of people bound together by a sense of mission have changed the world for the better. The easiest explanation for this is negative: it's hard to develop new things in big organizations, and it's even harder to do it by yourself. Bureaucratic hierarchies move slowly, and entrenched interests shy away from risk. In the most dysfunctional organizations, signaling that work is being done becomes a better strategy for career advancement than actually doing work (if this describes your company, you should quit now). At the other extreme, a lone genius might create a classic work of art or literature, but he could never invent an entire industry. Startups operate on the principle that you need to work with other people to get stuff done, but you also need to stay small enough so that you actually can.

Positively defined, a startup is the largest group of people you can convince of a plan to build a different future. A new company's most important strength is new thinking: even more important than nimbleness, small size affords space to think. This book is about the questions you must ask and answer to succeed in the business of doing new things: what follows is not a manual or a record of knowledge but an exercise in thinking. Because that is what a startup has to do: question received ideas and rethink business from scratch.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00J6YBOFQ
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Crown Currency; 1st edition (September 16, 2014)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 16, 2014
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 17802 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 213 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #61,089 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #2 in Business Technology Innovation
- #6 in Starting a Business (Kindle Store)
- #9 in Startups

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4.5 36,686 ratings

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Peter Thiel
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Peter Thiel is an entrepreneur and investor. He started PayPal in 1998, led it as CEO, and took it public in 2002, defining a new era of fast and secure online commerce. In 2004 he made the first outside investment in Facebook, where he serves as a director. The same year he launched Palantir Technologies, a software company that harnesses computers to empower human analysts in fields like national security and global finance. He has provided early funding for LinkedIn, Yelp, and dozens of successful technology startups, many run by former colleagues who have been dubbed the “PayPal Mafia.” He is a partner at Founders Fund, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has funded companies like SpaceX and Airbnb. He started the Thiel Fellowship, which ignited a national debate by encouraging young people to put learning before schooling, and he leads the Thiel Foundation, which works to advance technological progress and long-term thinking about the future.
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Blake Masters
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Blake Masters was a student at Stanford Law School in 2012 when his detailed notes on Peter’s class “Computer Science 183: Startup” became an internet sensation. He is President of The Thiel Foundation and Chief Operating Officer of Thiel Capital.
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Customers find the book contains refreshing insights and personal truths that they won't find anywhere else. They also say the writing quality is concise, straightforward, and accurate. Readers describe the book as stimulating, well-presented, and comprehensive. They mention the book is pretty short and has great story telling.

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897 customers mention "Content"849 positive48 negative

Customers find the book contains refreshing insights and personal truths. They also say it contains useful advice and anecdotal lessons learned from the author. Readers describe the author as highly intelligent, and extremely articulate. They say the book provides an excellent analysis of a strong foundation for success in layman's terms.

"...Thanks – A stimulating read, well worth the time and money – even for retired me!" Read more

"I found the message of this book was thought provoking and somewhat controversial...." Read more

"Simple yet complex, Informative yet imaginative...." Read more

"...Capitalism - A good thing! Creates value but captures some of the returns on the value, meaning structuring higher margins and not fearing..." Read more

323 customers mention "Writing quality"262 positive61 negative

Customers find the writing concise, light, and easy to understand. They also appreciate the simple graphs that help visualize the points. Readers say the book accurately conveys the insight and humor of Thiel's lectures. They mention that every page has something incredibly deep and interesting.

"Simple yet complex, Informative yet imaginative...." Read more

"...Start small. And so on. In addition the book is easy to read, even for people like me who are not native English. It is even fun...." Read more

"...Absence of Supporting Evidence. The writing style is very informal, which I actually enjoy (makes for a quick read), but many of his arguments..." Read more

"...puts his views forward succinctly, with clarity and disregard for a clever turn of phrase. He goes against the grain because the grain irritates him...." Read more

118 customers mention "Readability"112 positive6 negative

Customers find the book stimulating and sweet. They also say it's well worth the time and money.

"...Thanks – A stimulating read, well worth the time and money – even for retired me!" Read more

"...and libertarian swagger—or maybe because of them—Zero to One makes for a lively read...." Read more

"...Don’t get me wrong - this isn’t a terrible read. It’s reasonably interesting and will make you think about things...." Read more

"...-up chapter on potential future outcomes for the entire world, this entertaining and informative little volume is done...." Read more

112 customers mention "Clarity"100 positive12 negative

Customers find the book well-presented, with clear thoughts and brevity of expression. They also say the advice is clear, simple, and easy to digest. Readers also mention that the creativity and big-picture thinking are timely and sorely needed.

"...This book Is crisply written to capture your attention and also to inform you about the trends in business and the Rules/guidelines for..." Read more

"...But everywhere, the clarity of thought and brevity of expression are admirable...." Read more

"...The chapter on V. C.s is well done...." Read more

"...This seems to take a very real and genuine look into how Peter Thiel views the world (obviously through his own words), the same worldview that..." Read more

43 customers mention "Length"31 positive12 negative

Customers find the book pretty short, fascinating, and disjointed in its story telling.

"...This book is an easy read and short enough to get done in a few days to a week...." Read more

"Short and sweet. Great writing and intellectually stimulating. Great principles for the future...." Read more

"...This book is like a 4.4 out of 5. It's pretty short and a lot of the best points come from the earlier parts of the book...." Read more

"...Brief and well-written, _Zero to One_ shares contrarian wisdom about how to decide whether one's business idea is well-conceived, and about what to..." Read more

20 customers mention "Originality"20 positive0 negative

Customers find the book truly unique, with exceptional examples and illustrations to back up concepts. They also say it's an interesting supplementary piece that transcends the scope of the class.

"...of Thiel's lectures for those unable to attend, but it transcends the scope of the class and delivers the definitive statement of Thiel's views on..." Read more

"...block for an aspiring entrepreneur, it is nevertheless an interesting supplementary piece, and an easy read." Read more

"...Peter’s perspective here is pretty contrarian and unique, which is refreshing and makes for an entertaining read." Read more

"Exceptionally well thought out and original. If you're looking for a book that tells you what to think, this isn't it...." Read more

13 customers mention "Character"13 positive0 negative

Customers find the characters in the book genius, crisp, and interesting. They also say the book is a must read for entrepreneurs.

"Great book, great guy, very generous! I like it very much, actually, but the narrative sometimes gets stuck at Peter Thiel's own elocubrations...." Read more

"...Peter has a unique perspective on what to look for when starting a company and what types of market segments are most profitable to attack...." Read more

"...Peter is a genius and has a beautiful way of explaining things. Enlightening, insightful and certainly unorthodox...." Read more

"Great book... Peter is a good writer and I recommend this book to anyone looking for that extra push" Read more

21 customers mention "Storyline"8 positive13 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the storyline. Some find it interesting and inspiring, while others say it's disjointed and fragmented.

"...The organization of the book is pretty haphazard as well...." Read more

"...PayPal mafia story was something interesting and inspiring to learn...." Read more

"...10x? If you say so mr. Thiel.He is also somewhat contradictory throughout the book, and uses hindsight bias to ‘back into’ points he..." Read more

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Pieter D. Rossouw

A Propely Prescribed pair of Specacles that puts the world in focus

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2016

Verified Purchase

This book is like a pair of Prescription Spectacles that put the Innovation Startup Business world, into Sharp Focus.

When I first saw the price I almost hit exit. However, I thought “If this guy has the balls to ask this price, this book had better be good”. Else I'm going to roast him in my Amazon review. I ain't roasting!!

As usual I attacked reading this book in concept extraction mode for my normal initial scan read. Chapter 6, You are not a Lottery Ticket, hit me with a Baseball bat right between the eyes. and slowed my reading pace down to almost snails'. Despite this slow first read, this Chapter deserved a re-read, at almost letter by letter speed. Almost every word or phrase brings an idea from the past, often vague, to the fore and into sharp focus. When I finished my first highlighting trip, almost every word in this chapter was lit. I had to choose and eliminate some of them.

In Zero to One, Thiel explores the world of New Business Creation. I would have loved using the word entrepreneurship but excessive and inappropriate use by “experts” have stripped this word of it's true meaning. We even invented a new version in South Africa under the ANC – Tenderpreneur.

True entrepreneurship from basics is the creation of a New business that facilitates Economic Development by providing an Inventive New Product creating a New Market Sector that facilitates New Consumer Productivity enhancing opportunities.

In Thiel's thesis, basic human attitudes can be split into a 2x2 matrix. I also tend to think in 2x2 matrixi. So this chapter fitted my mind. But Wow did he blow my mind with his various Definite vs Indefinite and Optimistic vs Pessimistic discussions. Despite many years in multinational business I could not fault the Author on any of his explanations. He clarified a lot for me. One of them “strategically humble” is certainly a new, yet valid descriptor for a company with a profitable monopoly. Yet in their Financial market press releases, they deliberately select a market description that yields for them a minority market share in a large market and not their true market share in the niche they dominate totally. (Are they hiding from Monopoly acuzations?)

A few key quotes.
”In the 1950's, Americans thought big plans for the future were too important to be left to experts”. (San Francisco Dam)

Ralph Waldo Emmerson is quoted as saying “Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances …...... Strong men believe in cause and effect.”

“you should do what you could, not focus on what you couldn't” Is to my mind the Quote of the Year.

Another hand clapper was “No one pretended that misfortune didn't exist, but prior generations believed in making their own luck by working hard”

I consider the following a nice funny; When Peter had to use either the words he or she in his text he seemed to consistently use she. I suppose this enables him to duck accusations of Sexism. Showing signs of being scared of Indefinite Pessimists?

“We have to find our way back to a definite future, and the Western World needs nothing short of a cultural revolution to do it.”
“ A startup is the largest endeavor over which you can have definite mastery. You can have agency not just over your own life,
but over a small and important part of the world. It begins by rejecting the unjust tyranny of Chance”

The rest of the book is devoted to discussing the practicalities of founding Innovative Startups successfully. These are focused at exploiting what is commonly considered a secret simply because nobody has really explored it before. Their uniqueness create innovative monopoly opportunities - the key source of profit.

One of the issues discussed is; Power Law; We all know the Pareto principle is valid and 80-20 describes the unequal distribution of results in everything. Peter adds these considerations;

“It defines our surroundings so completely that we usually don't see it”.

He continues with; “but everyone needs to know exactly one thing that even venture capitalists struggle to understand: we don't live in a normal world; we live under power law.”

In this way many other facets of Startup founding are discussed practically.

In the end I came away with the following thought pattern;

A potential successful startup founder is someone who is a Definite Optimist with a long term perspective, prepared to take risks. Who has a mind open enough to identify factual or human secrets that need illumination. Who is prepared to do the hard work necessary to acquire the factual knowledge needed to explore this secret and find a way to change this mystery into a solution. Who is capable of funding this idea or selling it to Venture Funders to acquire funding. Who is prepared to expend the effort to develop the idea into a useful practical end product that solves something significant for a new market sector. AND; Who then has the flexibility to turn around from dreaming, research and creativity. To then display the tenacity to knuckle down to make this idea work in practice, prepared to live through the low personal income initial loss making era, building the practical business.

Thanks – A stimulating read, well worth the time and money – even for retired me!

9 people found this helpful

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Ed Cleaves

Insights into Innovation and Asymmetric Opportunities

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2024

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I found the message of this book was thought provoking and somewhat controversial. The idea that monopolies provide more innovation than competition was difficult to accept. The advice was conceptual in nature, so the benefits of reading this book are probably indirect for me. I am unlikely to be an entrepreneur, but I was interested in gaining more insight into investments, with asymmetric growth potential. I revisited some recurring lessons in relation to innovation like the notion of anti-fragility - that some technologies benefit from being attacked. I was also reminded of the idea that network adoption creates more value for existing and new network participants.

2 people found this helpful

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Ns123

I never Rated a book before in my life but this book is too good to not be reviewed

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2024

Verified Purchase

Simple yet complex, Informative yet imaginative. This book Is crisply written to capture your attention and also to inform you about the trends in business and the Rules/guidelines for Startups.

THIS IS TRULY A MUST READ FOR ENTREPRENEURS

2 people found this helpful

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Bibliophile

Zero To One - the next book on your ‘to read’ list

Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2015

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When Peter Thielâ€™s book, "Zero to One" first came out, I was skeptical at first, thinking, â€˜another how-to-win-it in the Valley book by a billionaire?â€™ but after hearing rave reviews from friends outside the tech sector I decided to give the book a glance.

Fast forward to today - I am glad I was open to reading "Zero to One" because I found myself Post-It-noting almost every other page trying to capture all of Thielâ€™s wisdom and foresight.

For those interested in getting the full value of the book, I actually recommend the following:

1) buy or borrow the book in a physical copy (Kindle just doesnâ€™t do it for me personally for a book this â€˜noteâ€™-worthy)
2) keep a stack of Post-It notes or a notebook with you and a pen and as you read jot down all the insights, questions and ideas you find interesting (there are a lot)
Ok, so what are mindshifts I took away from the book?

Mindshift One: There is the possibility of a bright future and it comes through technology.

Thiel asks in his opening chapter,

"What important truth do very few people agree with you on?"
His response is:

most people believe the future is globalization but he believes technology will lead us into the future.
What globalization offers is commoditization of the sameâ€¦ flatnessâ€¦ everyone will have access to the same goods and services and quality will suffer for the sake of equal distribution of quantity. However, technology will continue to propel us into new ways of thinking and existing and society will not flatten in terms of progress and uniqueness.

As a person whoâ€™d worried about a dystopian future, where McDonaldâ€™s and Google and Coca-Cola have taken over the world and everyone speaks the same language while wearing Levis jeans, Thielâ€™s vision of the future is much appreciated and a breath of fresh air. If we focus on making 10x improvements in technology we will not suffer a bland and painful death of dwindling world resources and sameness.

Mindshift Two: Monopoly can be a good thing. And competition may not be an ideal solution.

Thielâ€™s definitions of monopoly, capitalism, and competition were novel yet convincing.

Monopoly - The condition of every successful company. Being so good people canâ€™t ignore you and must use your offerings.
Capitalism - A good thing! Creates value but captures some of the returns on the value, meaning structuring higher margins and not fearing competition because the products and services you create are a 10x improvement over existing offerings.
Competition - Over time, competing products and services will trend towards commoditization, resulting in dwindling margins and profits for all companies.
Mindshift Three: Ted Kaczynski and hipsters share similarities and socially awkward tech geeks have an advantage over all of us.

Thiel states there are three groups of â€˜challengesâ€™ in this world: conventions, secrets, and mysteries.

Secrets are the interesting space because they arenâ€™t overly simplistic or downright impossible but will keep human brains engaged and occupied for hours at a time to understand. To live in a utopian-future-mindset, you have to believe that secrets are still out there to be solved.

He makes the connection that Ted Kaczynski and hipsters live in a state-of-mind where they believe secrets donâ€™t really exist anymore. The earlier days of history- when rimmed glasses and paisley print were vogue, and America was pre-modern luxury - were the days of interesting industrial, manufacturing, and distribution challenges. In other words, the â€˜exciting secretsâ€™ to solve thrived years ago.

However Thiel states that this is an incorrect lens to view the world. "Wantrepreneurs" (people with the Kaczynski/hipster mentality) will look at the current world of technology and think â€œsomeoneâ€™s already solved all the good problems. Iâ€™ll just mash up Facebook with Google and Pinterest but thatâ€™s not interestingâ€¦ so Iâ€™m not going to try anything at allâ€.

Truly successful entrepreneurship and technological breakthroughs will come from the socially awkward tech geeks. These individuals are less aware of the social cues in their environment, less prone to mirroring and emulating otherâ€™s behaviors and thought patterns and therefore more prone to developing fringe ideas that cause real disruption. They are the ones that believe the world is ripe with interesting secrets to unravel and there is hope for the future with technology.

Mindshift Four: The next human Renaissance will be abetted by technology - so donâ€™t fear technology.

Scripts for movies about artificially intelligent robots taking over Earth come partly from fiction and partly from the truth of existing technologies. This pseudo-reality can seem scary - itâ€™s almost-maybe-possible our Roomba vacuum could outsmart usâ€¦ actually maybe not. Thiel assures us that even with extreme advances in technology, humans still have the upper hand and can control robot-takeover of our planet. What robots will allow us to do is likely extend and expand our current abilities- robots can take care of the mundane tasks of calculations and manual labor while humans can use this free time for our next Renaissance - an era of the Ãœbermensch.

Imagine all the untapped potential that lies within us because of the current boring demands on our time and energy â€¦ image how we could collectively harness this and use it to improve the universe!

After reading "Zero To One" I am more optimistic about the future, more eager to invest my time in working on new technologies, and more committed to finding â€˜secretsâ€™ and 10x improvements to push human existence towards our next Renaissance.

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Fernando Sánchez

Excelente. 100% recomendable.

Reviewed in Mexico on May 23, 2024

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Contiene conceptos muy interesantes que reflejan la experiencia del autor, lo cual es invaluable. Algunas ideas son radicalmente diferentes a las creencias comunes, pero en realidad convencen. Está muy bien escrito lo cual hace muy fácil y amena su lectura. 100% recomendable para cualquier persona de negocios o emprendedor.

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Rogério V S Campos

One of the best

Reviewed in Brazil on July 28, 2023

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Different from all the cliche advices, truly gives you a clue on what is needed to build a billionaire business.

Sam R.

Be different

Reviewed in the Netherlands on June 22, 2024

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Love the encouragement this books gives you to think and act different than the crowd, truly creative ideas do not come from following the crowd. A good book if you want to do revolutionary business. Very inspiring.

Ige

Great listen!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 7, 2024

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The audiobook is a great book and It’s helping me to think differently from how I use to think

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